Burying Potatoes

[Sierratoo]

During the last week, the potato plants have shot up and are about a foot tall.
Is it too late to bury them up to their necks?

[rainbowgardener]

Nope, not too late... Just leave a few leaves at the top uncovered.

[Sierratoo]

Ok Thanks. I am just using peat moss cause it is lighter.

[jal_ut]

But why would you want to bury those nice leaves? Leaves are what manufacture the food that is stored in the tubers. The tubers form at the depth of the original set. All that is necessary is to add enough cover (two or three inches) to guarantee the developing tubers do not come into the sunlight as they swell. They turn green if this happens and get a bitter taste. You want to help those potatoes? Side dress them with some fertilizer.

[rainbowgardener]

I can't really argue with James, because he has grown WAY more potatoes than I have. But most other sources that you read talk about keeping on hilling up potatoes for awhile. And for me personally, I think it is important to keep burying them, because I am growing mine in containers, so they don't have any room to spread out horizontally, so I have to give them some vertical space.

and I always understood the reason for the hilling is this:



The new potatoes grow in the space between the seed potato you planted and the ground, so there needs to be some space there.

[Sierratoo]

I can't really argue with James, because he has grown WAY more potatoes than I have. But most other sources that you read talk about keeping on hilling up potatoes for awhile. And for me personally, I think it is important to keep burying them, because I am growing mine in containers, so they don't have any room to spread out horizontally, so I have to give them some vertical space.

and I always understood the reason for the hilling is this:



The new potatoes grow in the space between the seed potato you planted and the ground, so there needs to be some space there.

I understood that the more or higher you build the potato box up, the more potatoes that will grow. Apparently as the main stalk is buried, it sends out roots / shoots and keeps growing spuds all the way up.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, I do think that is true (up to a certain point) when you are growing them in a box or a container like I am. Maybe not true when growing them in the ground.

[luvthesnapper]

I hear you need an indeterminate variety of potato, as well. Something that will keep producing, as you keep hilling. I forget where I read that. I'm sure someone here knows more about it, as this year was my first year growing potatoes.

[Sierratoo]

I hear you need an indeterminate variety of potato, as well. Something that will keep producing, as you keep hilling. I forget where I read that. I'm sure someone here knows more about it, as this year was my first year growing potatoes.

Yes I have Red Pontiac.

[jal_ut]

I understood that the more or higher you build the potato box up, the more potatoes that will grow. Apparently as the main stalk is buried, it sends out roots / shoots and keeps growing spuds all the way up.

OK. Has anyone on this forum ever done that to see that it actually works? I am skeptical.

Even if it does, the fact remains that by burying leaves you lose the production of food that they would have produced. Food that goes into the tubers. The question comes up, whether you would get more weight even if you got more tubers. By burying the leaves you put the plant under stress. Now it has to devote energy into producing more leaves before it can produce excess to put in the tubers.

Run the experiment if you wish, but as for me hilling spuds three inches works very well.

[orgoveg]

This will only be my fourth season with potatoes and I don't have space for very many plants. That's not enough for me to decide whether "high hilling" makes more potatoes or not. However, this is what I've noticed so far.

The first season I piled those hills up as high as I could get them with available soil. Gravity and water kept settling the hills down to about 10 inches in height as I piled more on. After the tops had died off, I found the tubers way down near the base of the plant within a radius of about 10 inches from the plant.

The second season I did the same and had the same result.

The third season I didn't pile any more soil on after it settled. I probably ended up with about 4 or 5 inches of hill. I noticed a couple of tubers exposed on their top sides and I covered them back up. I didn't get any more or less tubers than before and they were at the same depth.

This year I'm piling as high as I can and I bought extra soil for the purpose. Maybe I'll have my decision after this but not many of them grew this time. I think I cut the seed potatoes up too small and many of the eyes didn't look productive.

[Sierratoo]

I understood that the more or higher you build the potato box up, the more potatoes that will grow. Apparently as the main stalk is buried, it sends out roots / shoots and keeps growing spuds all the way up.

OK. Has anyone on this forum ever done that to see that it actually works? I am skeptical.

Even if it does, the fact remains that by burying leaves you lose the production of food that they would have produced. Food that goes into the tubers. The question comes up, whether you would get more weight even if you got more tubers. By burying the leaves you put the plant under stress. Now it has to devote energy into producing more leaves before it can produce excess to put in the tubers.

Run the experiment if you wish, but as for me hilling spuds three inches works very well.

Isnt that why people have grown taters in discarded vehicle tires? the higher the stalk is buried, the more babies it makes. Any way I purchased more peat moss and will be adding it - hopefully tomorrow - to the box I built. Will let u know of the results in September. We get a frost very early on ....

[DoubleDogFarm]

Thinking out load here.

If continuous hilling produces more harvest in volume than trenching would do the same thing. As the potato grows, dig a trench away from the stem. Then gently lay the plant over and bury, leaving top exposed. As the plant puts on more height, lengthen the trench and gently lay it over again. No need for large volumes of hilling soil.

Eric

[rainbowgardener]

I'm sure you are right, we just should probably sort out that we have two different conversations going on here, one about growing potatoes in the ground and one about growing them in a container/ box/ tire stack or whatever. I think they are probably quite different, as in the container there is no room to spread out horizontally.

The fact that they can stretch out vertically like that is what makes the container/ box growing possible and still get a reasonable harvest per plant.

[jal_ut]

In doing some research on this subject of growing potatoes in a tower or bin, it seems this is an ongoing topic on many forums. It also seems there are no conclusive answers.

Some ideas:

There may be determinate and indeterminate potatoes. The indeterminate varieties are the long season types and are best for bin growing. The determinate types are short season types and will likely only produce one rack of tubers. More study is definitely needed on this one.

Potato harvest may best be increased by good soil fertility and plenty of water. I have been growing potatoes for many years and can say from my own experience this is definitely true.

If you are growing in a tower of some sort, you may do better with a long season type of potato. Seed companies don't really classify potatoes as being determinate or indeterminate.

You may do better planting the potato 12 inches deep in the first place, rather than burying green stems and leaves later. It is questionable whether the green stem will put on a rack of tubers.

...

OK, I am out of ideas. Have fun growing potatoes, the most mis-understood garden plant.